Questions About Grapple

[islan]

I was running my first BRP game earlier tonight, and one player wanted to play someone who primarily used the Grapple skill. He was into high-school wrestling (or something thereof), so he has some knowledge himself on how it usually works.

We both agreed that the way Grapple works as-written seems rather slow; ie, that you have to roll to grapple one round, but have to wait to apply any effects until the next round. So I ruled that you could apply a single effect on the same round that you start a Grapple. Any reason I shouldn't do this?

I also noticed that one or two of the options "Immobilize" the target in some way. This makes me wonder: if you still have to immobilize a character (or limb) you've already grappled, then what are the actual effects of just a successful grapple? Or does it just open the player up to the options of the effects?

For the last part, I just want to make sure I am interpreting this right. When someone successfully grapples a target, so long as the target has a free arm then they can make Easy attacks on the grappler. The grappler, however, has to use both his arms in order to grapple; attempting any other action such as normal attacks would result in them dropping the grapple. However, the grappler is able to automatically damage the target (as per the optional effect) for 1d3+db damage every round, but doing so will give the target the chance to break free with a Str vs. Str roll.

Edited November 1, 2008 by islan